Wet vs Dry trimming

Just looking to see what others prefer when it comes to harvesting and drying and why. My last harvest I did both. Found that hanging on the stalk and then dry trimming was a huge pita. Wet trimmed some and seemed like they dried out way too quickly and depending on the size of the nugs at drastically different rates.

For some reason when it comes time for harvest I feel like I have the worst time and just can’t get it perfect or even close to it. I can grow the shit out of the stuff but I suck at harvest time.

Understand completely.
I prefer to wet trim and try to keep room RH above 60%. I also hate to dry trim-agreed it's a huge PITA.
I trim off fans and outer edges of sugar and hang as large a portion of the complete plant as I can. Dry until small branches are stiff and then section and jar flower. If things are going to go sideways, it's usually during curing so keep a close eye on sealed jars-mold will form in a day so be vigilant until moisture levels in the flower stabilizes.

Dry trim will usually taste better, wet trim is way easier .

I have done bother over the years, and still mix it up some times if I want to make concentrates with fresh frozen material. Usually though, I will remove all the leaves with pluckable stems. This leaves only the nicest sugar leaves on the buds. Then I will hang them to dry on the branches, or some times break them down into buds and use a drying rack. It all depends on how much space I have at the time. 6-7 days later when they are slightly crispy on the outside they get broken down into buds if they aren't already, and put into a big paper bag. They stay in there until the humidty has evened out and they are dried to my pleasure . I will open the bag and shake it around maybe once a day, and usually it only takes about 3-4 days and they are perfect. Then they get bagged or jarred for storage. This has given me the most tasty and consistant buds without any screwing around with extra games.

Spazz24 said:

Just looking to see what others prefer when it comes to harvesting and drying and why. My last harvest I did both. Found that hanging on the stalk and then dry trimming was a huge pita. Wet trimmed some and seemed like they dried out way too quickly and depending on the size of the nugs at drastically different rates.

For some reason when it comes time for harvest I feel like I have the worst time and just can’t get it perfect or even close to it. I can grow the shit out of the stuff but I suck at harvest time.

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I have not harvested my first crop, but in the research I have done, seems you get a tastier, smoother product if you leave the sugar leaves on for the cure. I cannot speak to this methods effectiveness, but it does make sense in a way. I plan on using this method and will report my findings soon as I get to harvest and cure.

Wet trim for high rh areas dry trim for low rh areas, i personally prefer dry timming

PURPLEB3RRYKUSH said:

Wet trim for high rh areas dry trim for low rh areas, i personally prefer dry timming

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I actually do deal with low RH.. but I also hung my branches in the open the last time I’ve never dried in a tent which I will be doing this time around so that may be a different story. Anyone ever heard of the Trim Bag? Apparently you can process up to 2lbs of dry flower at a time in it. Seen it on IG today and it looks like it works extremely well. Would be a huge life saver honestly in a lot of different aspects. No hand, back, leg cramping or migraines trimming for hours and hours on end.

That trim bag looks like it will knock a shit ton of trichomes off. Just not the way to handle quality nug.

Renfro said:

That trim bag looks like it will knock a shit ton of trichomes off. Just not the way to handle quality nug.

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I said the same thing but I was looking at pictures done with that bag and the nugs still looked amazing.

nxsov180db said:

Wet trim you will have little to no smell in the finished product.

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Not true. I have done both. No change on smell.

IMO it's faster and easier to trim dry.

nxsov180db said:

It's been very true for me and another grower on this site that I happen to be friends with. I also had a thread going on another forum about wet trimming because that's how I used to do it and I would never have any smell and nearly every reply I got was another grower telling me that when you wet trim you take away from the smell. And it's not that the wet trim was drying too fast for me either.

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Well unless you dry trimmed and wet trimmed the same plant, same harvest, I can't believe this. I have never had a trim effect aroma period. But whatever works. FWIW I did wet trim for many years and never had an issue with aroma, and now I dry trim and never have an issue. So I think some other variable or perhaps you are handling the wet buds and not holding them by the stem as I do.

guys, Now that there is the wedryer - the drying machine, I do only wet trimming - its much easier. the bud looks much better and the wedryer dry it perfect quality, I am not worried about mold, my room has no smell, the buds dry evenly . in 5-7 days I start curing.

bruce bob said:

guys, Now that there is the wedryer - the drying machine, I do only wet trimming - its much easier. the bud looks much better and the wedryer dry it perfect quality, I am not worried about mold, my room has no smell, the buds dry evenly . in 5-7 days I start curing.

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Welcome to RIU
I do both, large quantities get the trimmer and a single plant gets trimmed dry
Both come out the same if I use the garbage bag paper bag sweat and slow dry method

Spazz24 said:

Just looking to see what others prefer when it comes to harvesting and drying and why. My last harvest I did both. Found that hanging on the stalk and then dry trimming was a huge pita. Wet trimmed some and seemed like they dried out way too quickly and depending on the size of the nugs at drastically different rates.

For some reason when it comes time for harvest I feel like I have the worst time and just can’t get it perfect or even close to it. I can grow the shit out of the stuff but I suck at harvest time.

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Pretty sure no one wet trims anymore.

a mongo frog said:

Pretty sure no one wet trims anymore.

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Why is that?
If you want to use a trimmer for small grows , you can't validate the cost of a dry trimmer
Those wet only bowl trimmers saved me a lot of hours over the years

Herb & Suds said:

Why is that?

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I don't know. For sure the quality of bud is 100 times better when dry trimmed. Does it make sense if i say the chlorophyll breaking down? Leaking chlorophyll? Just stuff I've read and seen and smelled.
Pretty soon with all this legal stuff going on, it will be state law to de leaf big fan leafs and maybe tip mediums then branched out to hang dry then dry trim. Potentially stiff penalties to wet trimmers.

I dry trim, my bud is smoother,more flavor,more taste everytime if i do it this way, some might think otherwise but i think its just the method involved.

I like to think of it this way,

If the fresh carbs/sugars are what make bud harsh then this is what we want to remove right?

Now if a fresh harvest is still living internally using up all the stored sugars then what happens when you cut the leaves?

Do the sugars exposed to oxygen just die off? It would seem so & the only thing that can leave at that point is water.

I have done both:

I find wet trim faster and easier - I use a trimming machine (you know, the dome with the spinning blades). However, you need to cure it properly to get the smell right.
With dry trim (hang entire plant, minus fan leaves) you get bud that tastes and smells right immediately. The curing seems to happen a lot during the "hang".

I'll always dry trim given the time and space, but logistics make me wet trim, particularly as I don't believe the machine works well with dry.

Hi, I have been wet trimming then hanging branches for 7-10 days then bucking and finally placing on paper for the last 6-12hrs, and this has worked without issue, I have recently purchased a
MT Professional 50 because I just hate the trimming process and it's a good 16-20 hrs so I have gone down the machine route.

Now I used the MT Pro for the first time 2 weeks ago simply bucking and straight into the machine, fast and easy in comparison to old method, so far so good but then had to find a way of drying as I couldn't hang them as I had already trimmed them so I put them in my Herbdryer a rebadged Wedryer but I wasn't happy with the continuing fan moving the air through the bud at such an early drying stage and the smell was grassy hay-ish so after 3 days I took them out of the Herbdryer and placed them on newspaper and went back to the end drying process of my old system. Now the bud is in an air tight bag which I have burped twice a day for the first week and once a day for the second and is smelling great, but this is the first time I have had to go through the burping process, alway had great smelling and tasting results after the 7-10 days of hanging.

What I'm asking is would it be better To hang dry the put through the machine when the twig is snapping or would anyone have other proven methods, and what is the correct way to use the Wedryer.

(Sorry it's so long winded)

From what I understand, there are certain toxins in the buds while the plant is alive. They recede into the stems / leaves when the plant is cut down. If you remove the leaves there will be less space for those toxins to retreat too, therefore they stay in the flowers. Please correct me if anyone knows anything to debunk this.

PlainfieldPuff said:

Please correct me if anyone knows anything to debunk this.

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Other than it being complete hogwash broscience?